Feels Like Being Back in Mumbai

 After I came back from a run this morning, I thought I was back in Mumbai. I didn't stop sweating for half an hour. The temperature these past few days has been hovering around 30C, but it is the soggy grip of humidity that has been the hardest to endure. People have been complaining about how they are having trouble sleeping. I have managed by having a cold shower before bed and making sure I don't nap during the day. As someone who prefers the cold to the heat, I can vividly remember the times I found it too hot to sleep, sometimes going back more than ten years. When I visited Chennai for the first time in July of 2007, it was so balmy that I couldn't sleep. Before moving there, I remember agonizing over whether it would be too hot and humid for me. And, it was, but I was lucky enough to have a bedroom in a sixth-storey apartment with a great cross breeze. My other housemates weren't so lucky, but they were sound sleepers, so they managed. If you are a light sleeper who wilts in the heat, you have had it. Another time was when I was taking a train in June to Delhi around 2005-06, enroute to a trek in the Himalayas. I remember standing at the door of the compartment of the running train and being whipped by hot blasts of air. I was on the middle bunk, so I stuck my hand out of the window of the lower bunk to catch some cool air. Going back in time even more, I remember spending some sleepless nights at my grandparent's place. I would flood the room with water to cool it, but that seldom worked. As I am writing this, I felt a draft of cooler air float in through the window. The met department has thunderstorm warnings out for all of this week, so hopefully we will have some good rain.